Scrapping On The Edge

~*~ On The First Day Of Christmas....~*~

....my true love gave to me

12 wonderful challenges!
Well, it is THAT time of year again - if you need some serious Crimbo inspiration you wanna check out the {12 days of christmas} on my Message Board. The wonderful elves {sandie} and {trace} razzled up some challenges for everyone to get you in the mood for crimbo and everyone who plays is in with a chance to win a FABULOUS prize package from {rusty pickle}.

All you need to do is register at the {forum}and follow the instructions for the Xmas challenge.

What are you waiting for?? Its gonna be so much fun.

And if you are more into making cards rather than scrapbook pages, you can join in with our brand spanking new {card diva challenges}, which are hosted by two of the hottest crafters from the UK {sarah jane} and the U.S. {charrie}.

We would love to see you join us from tomorrow - so grab a chair and a coffee and get scrappin'

~*~ Sheer delight ~*~

For once I have bought something from a TV shopping channel which actually does what it says on the tin....

I used to be s sucker for all sorts of thing and anything that had to do with Beauty Products I would fall hook, line and sinker for those before and after pictures and over the years spent quite a fortune on crap that didn't work.

Ever since I can remember I have been looking for a make up which would cover my blemishes perfectly and until 2 years ago I was still nowhere near finding it. Then a friend from the U.S. sent me a set of {igia instant cover}and I was in heaven - that make up is do brilliant that it even covers up tattoos (not that I want to cover them up, mind). Unfortunately they must have changes their formula as I re-ordered it twice and it doesn't cover at all. So, I was back at square one and in my desperation of running out of make up I got hooked on a Free-view shopping channel who talked about {sheer cover}mineral make up.

Now, you might think I should have learned my lesson not buying from the telly again but this was different. They actually showed in real time, how the two presenters took off their make-up in front of the camera and showed after how easy it is to apply the powders....well, needless to say I got sucked in and signed up for the club.

Due to my funny half oily half dry skin I was never able to really work successfully with powders and when my parcel arrived I wasn't so sure anymore this would work but what can I say - I AM IN HEAVEN!!! This is the coolest form of Make up I have ever used - applied within 5 minutes and it covers ever blemish. It almost "airbrushes" your face without looking like you wear any make up. Can you tell I am a fan?? The best thing is that I  automatically get another 3 months supply in February, so no worries about running out ever again.

~*~ Phew ~*~

Nope, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth - I had a much better reason for my blog absence.

The last week saw me hyperventilating on a daily basis as we totally cleared our spare room, which hosts my scrap stuff, in order to give it a thorough clean and re-vamp. I never thought it would have such an impact on me though - I only noticed while all the stash was packed away in boxes all over the flat, just how often I ventured in my little haven during the evening....this morning we could start to get  everything back in order. I even managed to gain some extra space by getting rid off some old boxes and stuff, which I didn't even know were empty to begin with {what an idiot!!. My new found inspirational ground was celebrated with a layout done for the latest {scrapmojo} challenge. It was such fun to sit and thing what I am thankful for and once more I got to play with papers from my fellow craft mafia chick {danyeela}.

Before I head back into my scrapping hole - don't forget to check out the forum at {the embellishment studio} as you might be in with a chance to get one of their wonderful January Hodge Podge Kits for FREE!! Subscribe at the same time while you are an active member to one of the three Kits and you get additional tokens for your chance to win the Kit. You can see the details {here}

~*~ Creative Weekend ~*~

I actually LOVED that it poured down with rain the whole weekend, that way I didn't have to feel guilty that I spent most my time scrapping and chatting on the net.

Don't you hate that though? You just click online to quickly check your emails or print out a title and five hours later you still hang around some message boards with your online friends?? I still managed to squeeze some layouts in between laughing so hard I almost peed my pants, when I chatted to my "home girls" from the Craft Mafia, and trying to assure Lyndon that the laptop is not grown attached to my upper thighs....

I can't show all of my layouts but this one I quickly did this morning - totally wrapped up in my obsession about {danyeela's}papers....I really dig the vibrancy of the papers and the quality...mmmmmhhh so gorgeous to stroke too - and we all know this is a vital criteria for the serious scrapper *snigger*.

Materials: papers - Danyeela (green, pink) * polka dot envelope - unknown * lace - unknown * alpha stickers - American Crafts Thickers * Flowers - Prima, Bazzill * Brads - unknown * Dymo tape

~*~ Busy Bee ~*~

Actually I haven't been THAT busy at all - I meant to do so many things over this weekend, what with me bing off work since Thursday but I seem to get stuck on the web whenever I try to get creative *snigger*

Thursday was fantastic btw - we were lucky as the sun was out the whole day and blue skies greeted us when we finally AFTER four years of thinking about it...managed to get our lazy bums down to {carisbrooke castle}. It was much better than we expected - seriously, we thought it would just be the outside walls and naff all inside but we were wrong and had such a great time there. We spent in total a little over an hour inside and finished off inside the Museum. Lyndon, being the polite dude he is, said "thank you very much" to the guy sitting at the entrance and we were happily on our way.

The plan was to walk to our new favourite pub the {hare and hounds}and then have a couple of beers in there before we had a meal. So, off we trotted into the sunset (well actually the sunset was behind us, but that doesn't sound quiet so romantic, right??) and onto a long and winding country lane....after we walked for about half an hour, being passed by two gazzillion cars already I said "if we were in the States each and every one of them would have stopped and asked if we needed a lift"...well, wouldn't you know it -> all of a sudden a car stopped and the dude from the museum popped his head out and asked if we wanted a lift to the end of the lane. Of course we said yes and during the conversation we did tell him that we were on the way to the pub, so he dropped us of there! How sweet!!! I believe that if Lyndon wouldn't have said "thanks" to them earlier on, they wouldn't have stopped.

Anyway, nice to see that there are still very lovely people around there! So, we had our beers and a FABULOUS deal on two meals in there (2 starters and 2 main dishes for £10!!!!) and thoroughly enjoyed our evening. I am not quite sure but I think we were back home at around 20:00 / 21:00.

Now onto something TOTALLY different. If you fancy winning yourself a FREE monthly Kit - you need  to check {this}out. {the embellishment studio} are giving away one of their Hodge Podge Kits for January - you'd be a fool to miss this opportunity. You have to trust me on this one - you won't regret playing along.

OK, I guess it's time for me to get my lazy arse up and do some work...but I think I surf the net for while longer first

~*~ Paper Passion and another Toot ~*~

Let's get the "smelly" bit out of the way then...I am totally and utterly excited to say that I have been accepted as a Design Team Member for {the embellishment studio}!!! It is even more exciting because it is their first ever Design Team - what an honour to have been chosen...right now I am waiting for my {hodge podge kit} which I ordered the other week - it looks so lush and I was sold the minute I saw that gorgeous burgundy eyelet lace...droooooool

Then I was lucky to have been given the chance to play with some exclusive papers of my favourite paper designer {danyeela}. DUDE, do her papers rock my world or what?? She is such a Sweetie and sent me three sheets of her newest papers which are not yet available to buy but trust me on this - YOU
NEED
THEM

The one with the skulls?? Gorgeous.....and the one with the polka dots?? Heaven...

Seriously, just looking at them made me get all my other Danyeela papers out again (I could never bring myself to use them as they are soooo purdy) and I couldn't stop scrapping.

Here are two layouts done with the new papers (skulls, polka dots and frame)

I suggest that if you like the papers, drop her a line through her website {here} - to make sure you will be first in line once the rush for the designs start. By the way, Danyeela sells by series only, meaning you cannot order just two sheets of this and one sheet of that. You will have to order the whole series but again, please trust me on this
YOU
WILL
LOVE
THEM
ALL

**Note: During the Xmas period there is a production stop of the papers - however if you are a re-seller or need papers for Work-Shops that your are holding, please DO contact Daniela through the above link as she will be able to assist you

~*~ Tootin' ~*~

Wow - that was a great moment when I switched my laptop on a couple of hours ago - the first email I opened was from Jen of {ready, set, create} who requested two of my latest Rusty Pickle layouts for their April/May 2008 issue. I so needed a "happy" email after I spent the weekend battling a migraine {yet} again....good thing that the doctor gave me those honkin' migraine pills - because none of the other painkillers did anything so I finally caved in and popped one of the whoppers....now I feel absolutely fine!

I have been scrapped like a woman on a mission since the headache was gone - cards, mini books, layouts and I really had to stop myself, otherwise I'd still be in my little scrap room...

Last Thursday we had another happy mail day at work - I am part of a lottery syndicate and we got our pay out for this year £120 each. How cool is that?? We only paid in about £40, so that was a real great win for us all. I was especially pleased as we are so skint this year with all the repairs on the flat, that we decided not to give each other Xmas presents. That meant of course that my new fave perfume {daisy} by Marc Jacobs would not be waiting under the tree for me...

Gues what?

Yup, I went out and spent some of my winnings on the gift set, which was the same price as the Eau de Toilette on its own....things that make you go mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmhhhhhh

The rest of the money will be put forward to a couple of nights out, as we can never afford them either. So, as I have this coming Thursday and Friday off, we are hoping for some nice weather, so we can have a lovely day out on the Isle of Wight, stop off some pubs and end up in our fave restaurant on the Island...bliss

~*~ Eight - Nil ~*~

Oh man - put {this}in your pipe and smoke it!

Gotta love football {soccer} when it goes the right way and BOY did it go the right way for my team tonight {happy bunny here}

On a crafting kinda side...*snigger* I finished another layout for my "Scrap Your Stash" challenge. I have made it as far as the letter "M" and combined papers from Making Memories with Melissa Frances. I might have "cheated" in a nice way, as the red strip is American Craft papers, but as I took this out of my scrap paper basket, it shouldn't really be held against me, as I am still scrapping my old stash before I buy anything new, right?

Please, don't ask me hwy I thought it would be a fun idea to ram two cigarettes up my nose and pose for this picture. My best excuse?? This was 20 years ago and I didn't know any better...lol

Materials used:
Cardstock - Frances Meyer ** Papers - Melissa Frances (dark green), Making Memories (light green), American Crafts (red) ** Sticker - Melissa Frances ** Chipboard Alpha - WRMK ** Tags - Rusty Pickle

~*~ Smelly ~*~

Just in case you were thinking of sending me something for christmas....

this is the only thing I want:

Daisy by Marc Jacobs - that scent has captured me but the sucker is bloody expensive. £40 ($70) a bottle is not an amount I jan justify for an Eau de Toilette, espcially when you think that my usual scent "Sunflowers" ony costs £7.99...

Well, in case you have spare money to burn you now know what to get for me now...well, a girl CAN dream, right??

~*~ Tag - you're it ~*~

I have been tagged by the lovely and totally funky {casey rivas}. She is one of my fellow {rusty pickle} chefs and I totally dig her style.

Anyhoo, Casey tagged me the list 7 random things about myself and I know this has been going around the net for some time now, so I won't be tagging 7 others by name {you might have already done it...} but invited everyone who reads this blog and who fancies being tagged to just go ahead and share their 7 random facts with us.

Here we go with my top 7

1. I am scared of balloons - yup I totally freak when one of those suckers is closing in on me. It's worse when I am out shopping and you have kids running around shoving those frickin' balloons in your face. Makes me jump all the time...

2. I love sprouts - not necessarily around Christmas time, but the whole year around. They must be the most underrated vegetable in the world. As a kid just the thought of them made me wanna puke, but I guess it had to do with the way my Mom use to make the sprouts. Now I know that she totally overcooked them, which makes them taste like crap {btw my Mom is a super cook and I love what she does...but her sprouts were the only bleck dish on her menu}

3. I am heavily tattooed - my whole left arm is covered and my right thigh sports a massive black and white tattoo. They all revolve around Native Americans and I am not done yet - I still have enough empty skin to fill up with pretty pictures :)

4. I always wanted to be a hairdresser and still do. It is beyond me why I never got any apprenticeship with any salons in Germany. They all gave the same reason "you are not very good at maths"....so how come that I ended up with a job at a bank??? Go figure.

5. I do not own a drivers license and I have no desire to ever get one. Public transport is fine, it is usually poop-pood by people who never use it. Since I left school I always had to rely on public transport and it has yet to let me down. Why would I wanna spend thousands of pounds on a license, a car, insurance, fuel when I couldn't use the car to get to work anyway? I have to take the ferry across the water...I much rather spend that money on holidays

6. I miss being on a Kit-Club DT...sad, hu? There is something about them which I adore, probably because they challenge you out of your comfort zone and you have to create with materials you would have not necessarily chosen yourself. I just love it!

7. I really can't think of anything else at the moment....

Over to you :)